an EWC member is never alone: he/she is part of a huge network of people and organisations that can help to make the transnational activities useful and efficient
the inner circle : the members of the EWC coming from different countries can help each other, each individual member is the first one responsible for making it work the deputy members are often forgotten, but should be kept up to date constantly and can have interesting information themselves the chairperson and/or secretary have a central role for the good functioning of the EWC, preferably at least one of both should be a workers representative the select committee is responsible for all communication flows, should always be allowed to meet without management, but can also act as permanent link between management and the other EWC members central management and other management representatives that usually participate in the EWC meetings board level representatives, often also EWC or SE WC members
the contact circle : local workers representatives local staff : obligation to inform them about the nature and the outcome of the discussions in the EWC, also source of information for identifying transnational subjects local trade unions, here as an example the three Belgian confederations (socialist, catholic and liberal) the European trade union federations, here as an example the metal workers, the services and the food/agriculture/tourism federation local management, often kept in the dark themselves by their hierarchy about what is being told in the EWC, partner for discussion about local consequences of central decisions, to be confronted with group policy if not respected locally
the support circle : other EWC members of other multinational companies, useful as benchmark and for exchange of experiences especially when coming from the same sector the ETUC + SDA + ETUI + ITUC, link to the political level, coordination between trade union federations, research, health & safety specialists, training, project development experts, here as an example two major French offices trainers, here as an example FNV Formaat (the Netherlands) ant TCi (Germany) experts and trainers : use trade union friendly organisations !